Time is the separation between what I am and what I would like to be. And work is the only road from self to self.
-Simone Weil
3 Links
The Emerging Science of Virtue: This week I should finish up the second article laying out the STRIVE-4 model of virtue. I am still processing my notes at this point, but for those interested, here is the abstract:
Numerous scholars have claimed that positive ethical traits such as virtues are important in human psychology and behavior. Psychologists have begun to test these claims. The scores of studies on virtue do not yet constitute a mature science of virtue because of unresolved theoretical and methods challenges. In this article, we addressed those challenges by clarifying how virtue research relates to prosocial behavior, positive psychology, and personality psychology and does not run afoul of the fact–value distinction. The STRIVE-4 (Scalar Traits that are Role sensitive, include Situation × Trait Interactions, and are related to important Values that help to constitute Eudaimonia) model of virtue is proposed to help resolve the theoretical and methods problems and encourage a mature science of virtue. The model depicts virtues as empirically verifiable, acquired scalar traits that are role sensitive, involve Situation × Trait interactions, and relate to important values that partly constitute eudaimonia (human flourishing). The model also holds that virtue traits have four major components: knowledge, behavior, emotion/motivation, and disposition. Heuristically, the STRIVE-4 model suggests 26 hypotheses, which are discussed in light of extant research to indicate which aspects of the model have been assessed and which have not. Research on virtues has included survey, intensive longitudinal, informant-based, experimental, and neuroscientific methods. This discussion illustrates how the STRIVE-4 framework can unify extant research and fruitfully guide future research.On Living in the Future: In this article, Paul Kingsnorth writes about progress, nostalgia, and how we can have hope for the days ahead. Kingsnorth is one of my favorite ‘Substackers’ and he’s especially gifted in thinking about time, culture, and technology.
Screen Time: If you are a parent of a teen, you may enjoy this tip about limiting screen-time and social media from Jean M. Twenge over at Character Lab.
2 Books
From the Desk: I recently just started reading through Abraham Joshua Heschel’s classic book, The Sabbath. In this book, Heschel argues for the good of the Sabbath to both the individual and to the society. It is making me think about the concept of “time-keeping” as a virtue (more below).
To the Shelf: James K.A. Smith is on my list of favorite living thinkers. I don’t always agree with him, but he never fails to get my mental wheels turning. I really enjoyed his latest book, How to Inhabit Time. I especially appreciated his thoughts on nostalgia.
1 Thought
Reflecting on the Virtue of “Time-Keeping”
How can “time-keeping” be a virtue?
I suppose how one answers that question depends on their understanding of time. I’ll assume that most people hold the view that time is a resource. More specifically, it is a resource that can only be spent once. Further, it is also a measure. By it, we count the seconds, minutes, hours, and days that make up our existence. Time is one of the tools we use to understand life. It is a gift to be stewarded. In this regard, the prophet Moses prays, “teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts” (Psalm 90:12). According to Moses, it is in the numbering of days (time-keeping), that wisdom is furthered.
Time-keeping is not just about being punctual, organized, and responsible. It represents our relationship with the world and with others. This is why Heschel’s work is so important. He emphasizes how the Sabbath reorients our relationship with time and space:
“the Sabbath is entirely independent of the month and unrelated to the moon. Its date is not determined by any event in nature, such as the new moon, but by the act of creation. Thus the essence of the Sabbath is completely detached from the world of space. The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”
Being virtuous in time-keeping requires a healthy respect for things temporal, and a special attentiveness to things eternal. It is about knowing “when we are” as James Smith puts it. It requires transcending the clamor of the marketplace that is never satisfied. It means living as Heschel puts it, in a "realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord.”